Bottoms Up! Atlas Exits Saxco
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Bottoms Up! Atlas Exits Saxco

Atlas acquired Saxco in January 2019 from The Sterling Group which had purchased the business in 2010

Saxco International is a distributor of glass, metal, and plastic containers, closures, capsules, and custom packaging used by more than 5,000 wineries, brewers, distillers, and specialty food manufacturers. 

SOURCE: Saxco International

Atlas Holdings has agreed to sell Saxco International to Novvia Group, a portfolio company of Kelso & Company.

Saxco International is a distributor of rigid packaging products, including glass, metal, and plastic containers, closures, capsules, and custom packaging. The company serves more than 5,000 customers, including wineries, brewers, distillers, and specialty food manufacturers.

Source: Saxco International

Founded in 1936, Saxco is headquartered in Fairfield, California, approximately 45 miles northeast of San Francisco. It also operates fulfillment and customer support centers across the United States, Canada, and Asia.

Atlas Holdings acquired Saxco in January 2019 from The Sterling Group which had purchased the business in 2010. “It has been an honor to lead Saxco alongside the Atlas team,” said CEO JB Berry. “Together, we built an exceptional business, and we’re looking forward to what lies ahead.”

“We want to congratulate CEO JB Berry and his superb team at Saxco. We are immensely proud of the transformation we drove together in our five-year partnership,” said Sam Astor, a partner at Atlas Holdings. “Saxco is a textbook example of a core Atlas competency – recognizing a business with a clear reason to exist and working in partnership with the leadership team to seize on the opportunity to return it to a position of market leadership.”

Novvia Group is a distributor of rigid packaging products, including glass and plastic containers, caps, closures, and metal cans, used across the food and beverage, pharmaceutical, and personal care sectors. Based in St. Louis, Novvia operates through a family of companies, including Inmark, C.L. Smith, Silver Spur, and Container Supply. The company is led by CEO Sarah Macdonald and has facilities across the United States, Canada, and Asia.

Kelso & Company acquired Novvia in September 2021. The Saxco acquisition is its third add-on, following the acquisitions of New Jersey-based JWJ Packaging in December 2023 and Florida-based Liquid Bottles in September 2024.

Atlas is a holding company with more than 25 platform companies operating in diverse sectors, generating over $16 billion in total revenues. With a workforce of more than 50,000 employees and more than 350 facilities worldwide, Atlas invests in sectors such as aluminum processing, automotive, building materials, food manufacturing and distribution, packaging, paper, power generation, and wood products.

In April 2021, Atlas closed its fourth private equity investment fund, Atlas Capital Resources IV LP, at its hard cap of $3.1 billion. The firm, founded in 2002 by managing partners Andrew Bursky and Tim Fazio, is headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut.

Kelso, based in New York City, is one of the oldest firms specializing in middle-market private equity investments. Since its inception in 1980, Kelso has invested over $19 billion of equity capital in more than 140 transactions. In October 2023, Kelso closed Kelso Investment Associates XI LP with $3.25 billion in capital commitments, exceeding its target.

The sale of Saxco to Novvia is expected to close before the end of the first quarter of 2025.

© 2025 Private Equity Professional | January 14, 2025

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